Brenock O'Connor and Jade Oswald to lead Franz & Marie at Charing Cross Theatre
by Best of Theatre Staff on in Cast Changes and Announcements
Brenock O'Connor and Jade Oswald will lead a 14-strong actor-muso company in Franz & Marie, a new musical reworking of Buchner's Woyzeck, which opens at Charing Cross Theatre on 28 September.
Acom and Charing Cross Theatre Productions have announced full casting for Franz & Marie, a new musical reworking of the Woyzeck story, which runs at Charing Cross Theatre from Monday 28 September to 14 November 2026.
Brenock O'Connor, known on screen for Game of Thrones, Alex Rider and Derry Girls, plays Woyzeck. Jade Oswald, whose credits include Little Women on tour and at Salisbury Playhouse, Treason The Musical in concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends, plays Marie. They head a company of 14 actor-musicians.
The adaptation takes its cue from Georg Buchner's unfinished Woyzeck but gives the fable a feminist turn, moving Marie alongside Franz Woyzeck at the centre of the story. It is set in a war-torn corner of late nineteenth-century Europe, where a platoon of young soldiers has been stationed at an isolated outpost for months with no further orders. Woyzeck, who has come back from the front with nightmares he cannot shake, submits to medical experiments run by the army doctor to earn a little more money for Marie and their baby. The pressure does not end well.
The company is completed by Steve Simmonds as Sergeant Ursid, Paula James as Zella, Richard Emerson Gould as Doctor Simian, Matthew Heywood as Drum Major Varg, Max Alexander-Taylor as Andre Schmitt, Mark Meadows as Captain Peccary, Eve Polycarpou as Vashti and Elaine Hua Jones as Kat, with Antony Lam, Anna-Marie Piazza (War Horse), Emily Panes (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Tom Aubrey, who makes his professional stage debut, in the ensemble.
The indie-folk score has an unusual history. It was commissioned by the Korean musical theatre company Acom and written by Chris Broderick and Rob Shepherd, both members of the Medway band The Singing Loins. Their version of Woyzeck was staged at the LG Arts Center in Seoul in 2014, and has been reworked as Franz & Marie for this Charing Cross run.
Book and lyrics are by Chris Broderick, with music by Rob Shepherd and Chris Broderick, and the new adaptation is by Teresa Howard. Steven Edis provides additional music, arrangements and orchestrations. Michael Oakley directs, with choreography by Ben Wright.